‘Five Nights’ delivers slice of satisfaction to audience hungry for live action mayhem

Chuck E. Cheese, a staple of childhood for many. With its vast arcade, indoor playground, and performing animatronics on the stage, this was an ideal place for children to celebrate birthday parties  in the bliss of innocence. But what if those animatronics snapped, left their stage, had a mind of their own, and were, instead of performing for children, out to kill the night security guard? And what if the man behind the business was instead a lunatic, out to kill children for pleasure? On August 8, 2014, indie game creator Scott Cawthon made his last attempt at creating video games by releasing Five Nights at Freddy’s. Little did he know at the time, this game would take off, blow up on Youtube and lead to the creation of 12 other games with spinoffs, a book series, merchandise line, and, eventually, a movie.

The plan for this movie began its circuitous path in 2015, with Warner Brothers Pictures announcing a claim to the rights to the franchise, with Gil Kenan (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) attached to direct. However, in 2017, Cawthon announced that Blumhouse Productions now had the rights, and in the following months after this announcement, Kenan decided to no longer continue working on the product. In 2018, Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) became the new director and the film aimed for a 2020 release. The script for this film eventually was scrapped by Cawthon, and a new script was made. In 2021, Columbus dropped his involvement in the film, and Emma Tammi (The Wind) became his replacement. In the following year, news broke of the film’s official creation, and the cast was slowly revealed. 

After eight years of anticipation, the film finally struck theaters on October 27, meeting with a critic score of 29% and an audience score of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film follows Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson, The Hunger Games), who is desperate for a job. After just getting fired from his security guard position at a local mall, he meets with career counselor Steve Ragland (Matthew Lillard, Scream), who warns him that there is only one job that will accept him despite his bad reputation of getting fired constantly: a security guard position at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. At first, he hesitates because the job requires working at night, a time he is unavailable because he has to take care of his little sister, Abby (Piper Rubio, Holly & Ivy), but life forces him to take the offer. What appears to be an easy job is proven otherwise: throughout the night, the four animatronics that dazzle the stage (Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy) move around the abandoned pizzeria and stalk him, threatening violence and mayhem. 

While this film was heavily anticipated, it has also been heavily criticized by both fans and critics alike, especially for the way the film adapted the lore behind the games. The first installment required gamers to play an unnamed security guard (later revealed at the end to be Mike Schmidt) as he worked the night shift at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. The game brought plenty of horror through animatronics: Bonnie the Rabbit was the most violent and known to do the most jumpscares on the player, Chica the Duck mainly roamed around with Bonnie, and Foxy the Fox would bolt down the hallway at random periods of the night. If the player closed the door on time, they would deal with Foxy pounding his fist on the door. Freddy the Bear was the final boss and nearly impossible to deal with. Not only did the player have to watch the cameras all night, shine a flashlight down the surrounding hallways, or close the door when necessary, but the player had to watch out for how much power they had left or else the juice would shut down and Freddy would appear in the door frame to the room, with a haunting music box rendition of “Toreador March” playing as the light in Freddy’s eyes flickered. The game seemed like it would be really hard to adapt into a film, but many fans expected the big screen to mimic the gaming experience.

Instead of recreating the first title to put on the big screens, writers and producers behind the film decided to focus on the lore behind the franchise. This exposition is very complicated, and many fans still don’t completely understand it all. Instead of using every single thing the lore covers, the film focuses on the most important piece, the one that started the creation of the early trilogy. In the 80s, William Afton and his best friend Henry Emily tested the concept of a restaurant made for kids with games, pizza, and singing animatronics to perform for the children. This place would be the perfect venue for a child’s birthday party. However, behind the scenes, things were completely different: within little 16-bit video game sequences between each night throughout the second and third games, it is revealed a purple man took five children and killed them, stuffing their bodies into the suits of the four animatronics, with the fifth kid going into an unknown animatronic that was later revealed throughout these interludes in the games (this information was later changed to be a puppet, known as the Marionette, gifting the spirits the animatronic suits). 

The first game had been around for nine years, with fans spanning from all ages. This movie, although torn to shreds with criticism by those unfamiliar with the franchise, captivated the hearts of the fans. The way it adapted the lore, while also bringing in twists of its own, expanded the 2-dimensional characters of the games, as well as recreating iconic sets and characters onto the screen. The animatronics were completely brought to life through the Jim Henson Creature Shop, fully functional like in the game, and made many fans swoon over the fact that these adorable, killer robots were real and fans were able to meet them at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights. Not only that, but iconic scenes within the games’ interludes were recreated for the film. While the film was advertised as horror, there weren’t as many elements of terror nor gore as fans anticipated, and many were disappointed in the PG-13 rating. Despite it all, a new trend on social media arose with the fans, who were only children in 2014, sharing how their inner child is finally at peace from watching the masterpiece of a film on the big screen.

Although this film incarnation may have met with a lot of criticism for the portrayal of the franchise, satisfied fans, who have waited eagerly for this film, walked away satisfied. This reception only proves that in the end, satisfying the fan base is all that matters. Cawthon himself even admitted to watching the film four times, all while wearing disguises, to see fans’ reactions. This film perfectly covered the basics of the entire franchise while still being original. Even though this film was just released into theaters, it was revealed that Lillard had signed a three-movie contract, and the sequel is already being written, meaning fans will have another installment to look forward to.

A- : Freddy Fazbear haunts the big screen after years of being complete fiction, uniting fans who have waited eight years to see the horrors, and the man behind the slaughter, beyond pixels.

By Ruby Pluchinsky

Published November 27 2023

Oshkosh West Index Volume 120 Issue II